Hepatitis

Re "Hepatitis a new worry for baby boomers," May 2 In the late 1960s I was a Peace Corps volunteer teaching school in Uganda. I became ill and required blood transfusions. Fast forward 30 years and I'm donating my own blood for surgery. Imagine my surprise when the Red Cross informed me that I had hepatitis C, something I had never heard of. I had contracted it from those long-ago transfusions. Once my initial panic subsided, I was fortunate to find an excellent heptologist who eventually persuaded me to undergo treatment.

The number of baby boomers dying from a "silent epidemic" of hepatitis C infections is increasing so rapidly that federal officials are planning a new nationwide push for widespread testing. Three in four of the estimated 3.2 million people who have chronic hepatitis C - and a similar proportion of those who die from the disease - are baby boomers. Deaths from the virus nearly doubled between 1999 and 2007 to more than 15,000, according to a recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study.

The Food and Drug Administration warned Friday that doctors should not prescribe and patients should not use the hepatitis C drug Victrelis (boceprevir) and the anti-HIV drug ritonavir at the same time because such use reduces the effectiveness of both drugs. Patients already using the two drugs simultaneously should not stop taking them without consulting their doctor, however, the agency cautioned. Ritonavir, a protease inhibitor, is commonly used to boost the effectiveness of other protease inhibitors and is found in Reyataz (atazanavir/ritonavir)

February 21, 2012 | By Eryn Brown, Los Angeles Times / For the Booster Shots blog

Hepatitis C mortality rates surpassed HIV mortality rates in the United States in 2007, researchers said Monday. In a study in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine ( abstract here ), U.S. Centers for Disease Control researchers analyzed causes of death on more than 21.8 million U.S. death certificates filed between 1999 and 2007. Rates of death related to hepatitis C, a viral infection that causes chronic liver disease, rose at an average rate of .18 deaths per 100,000 persons per year.

January 18, 2012 | By Shari Roan, Los Angeles Times / For the Booster Shots blog

A major advance in treating hepatitis C appears to be on the horizon. Researchers reported Wednesday that combining two antiviral medications was effective in stopping the infection in some patients who were not helped by the traditional treatment. Progress in fighting hepatitis C infection is of high importance because millions of Americans have the virus. However, the standard treatment with the medication interferon, while effective in many people, is linked to severe side effects.

Gilead Sciences Inc struck a deal to buy biotechnology company Pharmasset Inc for about $11 billion in a huge bet to diversify its portfolio with new hepatitis C treatments. Gilead, the world's largest maker of HIV drugs, will pay $137 per share for each Pharmasset share, an 89% premium to Pharmasset's Friday closing price. Pharmasset has been one of the hottest biotech stocks in the last year based on the potential of its experimental hepatitis C medicines to create a treatment regimen for the liver disease without commercially manufactured interferons.

Gov. Jerry Brown on Monday signed two bills that will expand access to sterile syringes for drug users in an effort to combat the spread of hepatitis C and HIV. The first bill, written by Sen. Leland Yee (D-San Francisco), allows people to buy syringes at pharmacies without a prescription. California was one of the few states where this was illegal, other than in a few pilot program areas. The second bill, introduced by Assemblywoman Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley), allows the state to authorize needle exchange programs in areas deemed high risk for the spread of disease.

For a generally progressive state, California falls surprisingly behind on certain issues. One of these is allowing the purchase of syringes without a prescription. Syringes are already an over-the-counter medical supply in 47 states. It's long past time for the same to be true in California. A pilot program signed into law in 2004 by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger allowed sales of syringes by pharmacies in counties that elected to join. Los Angeles was one of those. Yes, most of the sales were to addicts, who used the syringes to further their use of illegal drugs.

The hepatitis C virus, normally thought to be transmitted exclusively through blood - such as by sharing of needles among intravenous drug abusers - can also be transmitted through sexual activity, principally through anal sex among gay men, a growing body of evidence suggests. The most recent evidence was reported Thursday by New York City researchers who documented an outbreak of the virus, commonly known as HCV, among gay men. Hepatitis C, which can cause severe liver disease and even death if left untreated, affects an estimated 3.2 million Americans.

The Food and Drug Administration on Monday approved telaprevir for the treatment of hepatitis C, the second drug for the disease approved in two weeks. On May 13, the agency approved boceprevir, sold under the brand name Victrelis. The two drugs are the first new treatments for hepatitis C in 20 years. Both are members of a new class of drugs called protease inhibitors that block replication of an enzyme that is crucial to the replication of the virus. Like boceprevir, telaprevir, sold under the brand name Incivek by Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. of Cambridge, Mass., is meant to be used only in conjunction with the standard therapy of peginterferon-alpha and ribavirin.